What are the Key Components of Trauma Treatment and Recovery?

People experience trauma differently. One person may feel shock and like they’re having an out-of-body experience after an auto accident, while another person in the same vehicle might feel calm and collected.

Regardless of how others respond to a traumatic experience, you should consider seeking trauma treatment and recovery if you’re having difficulty coping. 

What is Emotional Trauma?

Emotional trauma occurs when you experience, witness, or learn about a situation or event so intense it overwhelms your ability to cope. 

Causes of trauma include:

• One-Time Events. Accidents, life-altering injuries, assaults, or unexpected threats to stability can lead to trauma.
• Relentless Stress. Consistent stress in everyday life can induce trauma. These are experiences like living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, battling or supporting someone with chronic illness, racism, repeated bullying or abuse, or neglect.
• Extraordinary Circumstances. The sudden death of a loved one, a painful breakup, or extreme disappointment can also lead to trauma.

Symptoms can present in many ways, depending on the person and the situation they experienced. 

Symptoms of trauma include:

• Ruminating. You think about the trauma you experienced seemingly nonstop. You find it difficult to redirect your thoughts to your current surroundings and circumstances.

• Flashbacks. Certain sounds, sights, smells, or locations take you back to the trauma. You have nightmares or trouble sleeping. You don’t feel safe. Any strong reaction that doesn’t seem connected to your present life could be an effect of trauma.

• Loneliness. Persistent feelings of loneliness and failure are frequent symptoms of trauma.
• Overreacting. Do you always seem on guard? Do you startle easily? Do you panic when small things don’t go according to plan? These could be signs of trauma.

 

Emotional trauma can have a lasting impact on your life. It can change how you feel about yourself and the world around you. It can also affect your relationships with other people in serious ways.

When to Seek Trauma Treatment and Recovery

Trauma treatment and recovery are not a one-size-fits-all solution. Treatment is as unique as trauma responses. It’s essential to understand your symptoms and when to seek help.

Consider seeking help for trauma if you have:

• Difficulty completing day-to-day tasks
• Declining performance at work or school
• Severe depression and anxiety
• Negative relationship experiences
• Flashbacks or recurring dreams of what happened
• Little or no interest in other activities
• Feelings of numbness or detachment
• Adverse ways of coping with emotions surrounding the event

Key Components of Trauma Treatment

While trauma treatment modalities vary, there are some key components you can expect from trauma treatment, including:

• Trauma Screening. Emotional trauma is often an invisible injury. You may not know you have it until long after the triggering event. Your provider should screen for trauma during an exam following exposure to a traumatic event. This screening entails questions about your experiences and symptoms.
• Recognizing Trauma. Trauma can affect your physical health, from headaches to heart disease. It can also lead to depression, anxiety, and substance use issues. If you suspect you have trauma-related symptoms, it’s important to talk with your doctor about ways they can help you manage these effects on your overall health.
• Trauma-Specific Treatment. These approaches address the symptoms and behaviors that result from traumatic experiences. Trauma-informed treatments include various individual, group, and experiential therapies.

Principles of Trauma Recovery

Trauma-informed recovery uses guiding principles to ensure your physical and emotional safety.

Trauma recovery principles include:

• Safety. Trauma recovery establishes safety so the survivor can process what they experienced. 
• Collaboration. Trauma survivors work alongside their therapists to learn how the body and mind respond to traumatic stressors and understand their own responses. 
• Empowerment. Another component in trauma recovery is living authentically — expressing yourself openly without fear of judgment or criticism from others. It’s vital for your personal growth and your relationships with others. Sharing experiences can help other survivors feel less alone and more supported by those around them.

Carmen Dominguez, Executive Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center, said, “Treatment and recovery help trauma survivors feel more authentic and like they have greater self-agency.”

“We want to inspire the client to feel motivated to disentangle from self-defeating patterns,” she stated.

What to Expect During Trauma Treatment

When you’re recovering from trauma, you’ll go through phases. Each phase helps you heal and move on with your life. Carmen stated, “You can’t undo a trauma. What happened to you will always be there. But healing from and controlling symptoms of trauma is possible.”

Phases of trauma treatment include:

• Confronting Past Trauma. Facing past trauma through event recollection also requires a willingness to talk about what happened and how it made you feel.
• Addressing Untreated Trauma. You’ll realize untreated trauma has consequences in your life. These consequences might include depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions.
• Learning New Coping Skills. You will learn new coping skills to manage your emotional responses. You might also learn how to deal with triggers so they cause less of an adverse reaction in the future.
• Receiving Guidance and Comfort. Receiving guidance from a trauma-informed therapist or counselor should include comfort and collaboration on any relevant issues.
• Learning New Life Skills. A common symptom of trauma is an inability to cope with everyday life. Treatment focuses on helping you develop new skills and strategies for dealing with the world around you.
• Developing Resilience. Overcoming trauma is a process that takes time. Resilience is not something you develop overnight. It doesn’t mean you’re weak or broken if you still have trauma symptoms. But, with time and support from the right people, you can get through this challenging time.

Get Help at ILC

Trauma recovery is not a quick process. People need time to work through the feelings a traumatic experience causes. There are options for getting the support you need. Explore trauma-informed recovery with Integrative Life Center. Contact us today to learn more.

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The Impact of Trauma on Self

Those who have experienced trauma know it takes resilience to overcome. When something threatens a person’s feelings of safety, intense emotions are a natural response.

Trauma can affect a person’s ability to process those emotions and can cause you to experience negative emotional and physical effects long after the event.

Many survivors experience guilt or shame after a traumatic event. Confronting trauma and beginning the healing process can be frightening, but you can heal with proper care and resources.

Understanding Trauma

Trauma is the emotional response to a distressing event or series of emotionally disturbing or life-threatening events. It can have debilitating, long-term effects on a person’s emotional, mental, and physical well-being.

Trauma can affect a person’s ability to cope by diminishing their sense of self and ability to process experiences. It can distort a person’s sense of safety, cause feelings of helplessness, and alter their everyday life. Trauma can manifest in mental illness, flashbacks, memory loss, or other defensive mechanisms your brain employs to protect you.  

Traumatic events undermine a person’s safety.

Events that may cause emotional trauma include:

• Physical violence
• Sexual assault
• Neglect
• Death
• Car accidents
• Racism
• Military combat experiences
• Participant in a natural disaster
• Witness to a crime, accident, or death

The circumstances surrounding trauma can vary, but they typically involve a loss of control, abuse of power, or experiencing pain and helplessness.

The Impact of Trauma on Self

Trauma can cause lifelong effects that significantly alter a person’s life. Symptoms can manifest immediately or take time before becoming evident.

The emotional impact of trauma may include:

• Shock
• Denial
• Anger
• Fear
• Sadness
• Confusion
• Anxiety
• Numbness
• Guilt
• Hopelessness
• Inability to concentrate

The physical impact of trauma may include:

• Nausea
• Headaches
• Sleep difficulties
• Racing heart
• Sweating
• Digestive issues
• Shortness of breath
• Jumpiness
• Persistent crying
  

When a person experiences trauma, their body responds automatically to feeling threatened. The brain releases cortisol and adrenaline, which can have varying effects.

Immediate, automatic responses to trauma may include:

• Fight. Responding physically by struggling, fighting, and verbally saying “no.”
• Freeze. Feeling paralyzed or unable to move.
• Flight. Physically moving away from the traumatic event in progress by running, hiding, or moving away.

The Behavioral Impacts of Trauma on Self

Surviving trauma can lead to a variety of adverse effects on the self, including mental health concerns. For example, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a severe traumatic stress response, develops when trauma symptoms are persistent and debilitating. It can cause a person distress in relationships and living their daily life.

People with PTSD can experience flashbacks, panic attacks, depression, and severe anxiety. It can escalate to self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or difficulty with substance use.

Over time, trauma can interfere with a person’s well-being by altering their perception of the world and themselves.

Trauma affects well-being by:

• Shattering your sense of self and safety
• Making someone feel like they don’t have control or free will

• Creating difficulty trusting others
• Causing dissociation
• Losing your sense of identity
• Feeling a sense of worthlessness
• Losing your physical connection to your body
• Experiencing a loss of intimacy

Carmen Dominguez, Executive Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center, said trauma shatters a person’s sense of self and keeps them from living their most authentic lives. She said:

“Some clients who have experienced trauma are hyper-focused on avoiding feeling or thinking about the trauma. They can’t focus on the here and now to create a life they love and respect. When we are in a state of survival, we can’t explore our authentic aspirations and unique competencies and gifts^[a].”  

Seeking Help

To heal from trauma, a person needs help to reestablish their sense of safety and control of their life. Carmen said:

“The first step in healing trauma is reclaiming and restoring one’s sense of safety, dignity, and connection. In seeking safety, trauma survivors disconnect from their inherent worth. Self-esteem is key to our sense of well-being^[b].”

At Integrative Life Center, mental health professionals approach therapy in a trauma-informed way. This approach means understanding that trauma can have long-lasting emotional, neurological, psychological, social, and biological effects. The treatment path is “informed” by these past experiences, with a strong sense of empathy from mental health care providers.

This approach also allows counselors to establish relationships with clients where they walk alongside them in healing instead of acting as experts. They help educate clients about trauma and how the body responds to it, so they can understand and observe it practically and begin to understand their responses.

“Providing clients with psycho-educational information about how the body, mind, and spirit are impacted due to unprocessed trauma is key to supporting them on a transformational journey of healing. We want to inspire clients to get curious about what is behind some of their self-defeating patterns. We care deeply about addressing our clients’ whole being^[c].”

Finding Healing

Healing from trauma takes time, but it can change your life. Talking to a mental health professional can better your understanding of your trauma and help you implement healthy coping mechanisms.

Our approach to trauma-informed care puts a survivor’s emotional and physical safety at the forefront. Our providers approach healing with empathy and compassion, building trust and developing coping skills. It’s never too late to begin healing. Contact ILC today to find comfort and take back your life.

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Can Trauma Be Cured Through Treatment?

People experience many different types of trauma throughout their lives. Trauma isn’t exclusive to age, gender, profession, or experience. And treating trauma differs for everyone, which makes people wonder, “Can trauma be cured through treatment?”

Facing and overcoming trauma is a brave undertaking. But, with the right help, you can learn how to process your feelings surrounding the trauma and heal.

Understanding Trauma

Traumatic experiences differ. Traumatic experiences frequently involve real or perceived threats to life or safety and trigger a survival response. After the initial reaction subsides, trauma survivors often feel the world is unsafe.

Causes of trauma include:

• One-Time Events. Accidents, life-altering injuries, assaults, or unexpected threats to stability are common events that lead to trauma.
• Relentless Stress. This category deals more with everyday life. Living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, battling or supporting someone with chronic illness, racism, being subjected to repeated bullying or abuse, or neglect can induce trauma.
• Extraordinary Circumstances. The sudden death of a loved one, a painful breakup, or extreme disappointment can also lead to trauma.

People’s responses to trauma vary as much as the traumatic experiences themselves. People who experience the same traumatic event are likely to respond differently. For people who experience emotional trauma, it can range from an adjustment issue that resolves itself quickly to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is a life-altering, severe condition.

Symptoms of trauma include:

• Ruminating. You think about the trauma you experienced seemingly nonstop. You find it difficult to redirect your thoughts to your current surroundings and circumstances.

• Flashbacks. Certain sounds, sights, smells, or locations take you back to the trauma. You have nightmares or trouble sleeping. You don’t feel safe. Any strong reaction that doesn’t seem connected to your present life could be an effect of trauma.

• Loneliness. Persistent feelings of loneliness and failure are frequent symptoms of trauma.
• Overreacting. Do you always seem on guard? Do you startle easily? Do you panic when small things don’t go according to plan? These could be signs of trauma.

Can Trauma Be Cured Through Treatment?

Treatment can’t cure trauma, but it can become another experience in your life with feelings surrounding it that you can regulate and control.

Regardless of the traumatic experience and your response, it’s essential for the survivor to seek professional help if they’re having difficulty processing what they experienced.

Carmen Dominguez, Executive Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center, stated that trauma treatment can help people live authentically and with self-agency. She said:

“Trauma treatment helps to reestablish safety and guide clients back to their inherent worth. You can’t undo a trauma. What happened to you will always be there. But healing from and controlling symptoms of trauma is possible.”

Tips for Healing and Recovering From Trauma

Seeking trauma treatment shouldn’t be done without thought or care. Consider the following tips to guide you through healing and recovery from trauma.

• Get Educated. Learn about trauma, how it can affect you and others, and why it’s important to seek help.
• Avoid Unhealthy Coping. Unhealthy coping mechanisms like self-medicating with drugs or alcohol aren’t helpful. It often only worsens trauma’s effects or creates secondary concerns.
• Connect With Others. Finding someone who understands your experience and will listen without judgment or advice is critical. They should be a safe person you can talk to when you need them most, without fear of judgment or advice on “what you should do.”
• Seek Survivor Support. You don’t have to go through this alone. Although comparing trauma is unhealthy, many people have gone through similar experiences. They can offer support and practical advice on how they handled things afterward that may apply to your situation.
• Seek Treatment. If you’re experiencing trauma symptoms, it’s important to find a mental health professional to help you through them. You’ll be able to more effectively process what happened, learn coping skills, and develop healthier habits to help you deal with future stressors.

Once you’ve determined that you need treatment, it’s essential to explore your options with a trusted therapist and treatment center.

Treatments for Trauma

Finding the right treatment for trauma means exploring your options and considering what might work best for you. There are many therapeutic techniques, some even specifically designed for trauma treatment. 

Some treatments to consider are:

• EMDR. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that uses eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right stimulation to treat trauma. The survivor focuses on an upsetting memory while following a therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth. This approach helps the person reprocess the memory in a new way that doesn’t include fear.
• Brainspotting. Brainspotting is a process in which you visualize your trauma while listening to music. It’s based on a theory that different parts of our brains are affected by different emotions and memories, so you can use music to help access those memories more easily — and then work through them emotionally.
• Group Therapy. Group therapy is when several people with similar issues meet with a therapist to discuss their problems and support each other as they work through them together.

These are just some of the mental health treatments you can explore through a credible mental health professional dedicated to trauma recovery. It’s essential to recognize that treatment helps but understand there is no “cure” for trauma. How can trauma be cured through treatment when it’s not a disease but an experience to heal? 

How Trauma Treatment Can Help

Fortunately, recovery from trauma is still possible. Trauma treatment therapy can be an effective way to help you through the aftermath of a traumatic event and assist you in controlling trauma symptoms. 

Treatment can help you:

• Develop Coping Skills. Trauma treatment will help you learn how to manage your emotions and stress and develop new skills for dealing with situations that may trigger an emotional response.
• Regain Control. Treatment can help you regain control and make meaning of trauma and your response. This process is perhaps the most important part of trauma treatment, as it allows you to take back control over how you see yourself and your life after trauma.
• Rebuild Relationships. Often trauma survivors find themselves alienated from friends and family members who don’t understand their experience, which can lead to isolation and loneliness. To heal from trauma, it’s important to reestablish these bonds and rebuild trust in others who are there for you during this difficult time.
• Reestablish Your Sense of Safety. This step means taking steps toward creating a new sense of security in your life — whether by finding an environment where you feel safe or by learning new ways to feel safe physically and emotionally.
• Identify and Lessen Triggers. Trauma treatment is a way of treating the effects of trauma by helping you recognize and manage the symptoms that come with it. Trauma treatment can help reduce feelings of distress, anxiety, and depression associated with traumatic events.

How ILC Can Help

Trauma doesn’t have to control your life. You can begin to heal today, even if you’ve been unable to acknowledge your trauma in the past. 

Our team of trauma specialists has decades of combined experience in treating trauma, and each member specializes in a specific area connected to trauma. We understand trauma and how your brain and body respond to it.

Contact Integrative Life Center to explore your recovery options and discover effective ways to help you heal from trauma.

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Understanding Childhood Trauma and Memory

Childhood trauma doesn’t end in childhood. Many survivors of childhood trauma experience continued effects of traumatic events into adulthood. A confusing and frustrating symptom for many is suppressing memories due to childhood trauma. Some survivors may carry negative feelings about their childhood but forget the “how” or “why” of a traumatic event. It’s the brain’s way of protecting you from these traumatic events.

Understanding Childhood Trauma

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) framework identifies potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood. These experiences can impact survivors into their adult life. It can affect their physical and mental health, ability to maintain relationships, and susceptibility to addiction

The 10 ACES are:

1. Physical abuse
2. Sexual abuse
3. Verbal abuse
4. Physical neglect
5. Emotional neglect
6. A family member who is depressed or diagnosed with a mental illness
7. A family member who is addicted to alcohol or another substance
8. A family member who is in prison
9. Witnessing abuse of a mother
10. Losing a parent to separation, divorce, or death

Experiencing this kind of trauma can cause Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A common side effect of PTSD is the suppression of memories, which feels like memory loss. Many childhood trauma survivors experience this suppression by dissociating from the event. It’s a form of protection your mind employs as it jumps into survival mode.

Childhood Trauma and Memory

Memory suppression is the brain’s defense mechanism against psychological damage. When childhood trauma survivors repress these memories or dissociate from a traumatic event, it can take years of therapy to remember details.

Trauma doesn’t cause memory loss. It overwhelms the person’s psychological and physical system, which suppresses the memory from the person’s consciousness, according to Carmen Dominguez, Executive Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center.

“When an individual is exposed to a traumatic experience, the autonomic system goes into fight, flight, or freeze, and the experience and memory of the trauma is not fully processed,” Carmen said 

But not everyone responds to trauma the same way. Each nervous system has a unique response and reaction, Carmen stated.

“Trauma can cause problems in how the memory gets stored and recalled,” she said. 

Trauma overwhelms some people’s nervous systems, causing them to numb or dissociate. 

Numbing is when emotions detach from thoughts, behaviors, and memories. 

Dissociation severs connections among a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, and sense of identity. 

Numbing and dissociation can occur during severe stress or trauma as a protective strategy where the person incurs distortion of time, space, or identity, according to Carmen. She said: 

“People who have been subjected to shock or developmental trauma may have responded by detaching from a certain experience to survive. Human beings are wired for safety and connection. There is intelligence in these trauma responses.”  

Recognizing False Memories

After experiencing a traumatic event, the brain is vulnerable. It can attempt to fill the gaps in your memory by fabricating false memories. A false memory occurs when you have an apparent recollection of an event, but it didn’t actually occur how you remember it. 

False memories can greatly alter your perception of the event and prevent you from fully understanding your trauma. Working with a mental health professional can help uncover your true memory and remove the false memories. 

Why is it Essential to Recover These Experiences?

Remembering and accepting trauma is vital to healing. Survivors may maintain a distorted perception of traumatic events if they don’t process those memories. They can’t be fully present in their current lives because they haven’t processed the past. Carmen said:

“Presence is linked to happiness. It’s important to bring these unprocessed memories into awareness, so the person can see their current circumstances without distortions.” 

People can experience flashbacks when they haven’t processed trauma. It can make them feel like they’re reliving a traumatic event.

“Flashbacks exacerbate the feeling of unsafety, of the ongoing threat of danger,” Carmen explained. “Flashbacks are like symptoms of unprocessed trauma. If we consider the many ways unprocessed trauma is tucked away – often as fragments of the experiences – the person is left consumed with trying to avoid the trauma at all cost.”

Trying to avoid feeling or thinking about trauma can inhibit survivors from being happy. Carmen said:

“When we are in a state of survival, we aren’t able to be creative and explore our authentic aspirations and our unique competencies and gifts.”

Unprocessed trauma doesn’t just affect a person’s mind. They may experience physical symptoms or find difficulty living a normal life.

“Individuals who have suffered trauma have a distorted sense of the world and themselves,” Carmen said. “Trauma impacts us as a whole – our minds, bodies, behaviors, self-identity, spirits, relationships, and communities are affected. Because trauma impacts us holistically, we have to heal holistically.”

Treatment for Trauma

Recovering memories can take time and discipline. The first step is acknowledging the trauma so you can begin to reassociate with your feelings. A trained professional can guide you in recognizing your trauma and finding healing.

Trauma-focused therapy addresses the traumatic events you experienced and helps to overcome the negative feelings. A mental health professional can help you understand your “fight or flight” responses and find healthy coping mechanisms. They can also help you recall memories, accept the past, and rebuild trust in your memory.

Integrative Life Center uses various treatment methods to help survivors of childhood trauma heal and regain memories.

Treatment methods include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Talk therapy that focuses on changing the automatic negative response to trauma and replacing the patterns and behavior. 
• Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). A treatment technique that involves moving your eyes in a specific way while processing traumatic memories. It can help reduce the distress associated with these memories.
• Brainspotting. A therapeutic process that examines the body’s natural self-scanning ability and focuses on how the brain reflexively signals emotions.
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). A type of cognitive behavior therapy that develops mindfulness skills and focuses on “living in the moment.”

These treatment methods are only effective with an open mind and a willingness to heal. Rebuilding your memory takes time. Once you can process the trauma, you can begin your healing journey.

Don’t Let Childhood Trauma Control Your Present

No matter how long it’s been since you experienced childhood trauma, there is always time to heal. Understanding childhood trauma and memory loss can be vulnerable and scary. But there’s no shame in being unable to remember. Your mind was protecting you from the trauma.

Childhood trauma shouldn’t control you. Taking steps to overcome your past and finding healthy coping mechanisms can greatly improve your life. Integrative Life Center can provide treatment, therapy, and resources to overcome your past trauma so you can live fully in your present. Contact us today. 

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When to Seek Treatment for Suicidal Thoughts

Sometimes feelings of despair and sadness become so strong that they start to feel unbearable. And when negative thoughts and emotional pain become too much, suicide may feel like the only escape. But these feelings aren’t something you have to deal with alone. With the proper treatment and support, suicidal thoughts can be relieved, and you can go back to living a happy and fulfilled life. 

If you or a loved one are having suicidal thoughts, it’s crucial to get professional mental health support as soon as possible. It’s essential to understand suicidal ideation, when to seek treatment for suicidal thoughts, and how to support a loved one through this difficult time.

Understanding Suicidal Ideation

Suicidal ideation is the technical term for having thoughts or ideas of ending your own life. Passive suicidal ideation is having suicidal thoughts without actually going through with them. Active suicidal ideation is when the concept of suicide turns into actively making plans to die by suicide.

The reasons for suicidal thoughts vary. Some factors can put people at greater risk of suicidal ideation, from gender and ethnicity issues to underlying mental health concerns. Julie D. Eberwein, executive director at Integrative Life Center, noted that multiple factors contribute to thoughts of suicide, including the below.

Contributing factors to suicidal ideation include:

• Age
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Socioeconomic status 
• Mental health issues
• Substance use problems
• Medical conditions
• Grief and loss
• Low self-esteem
• Relationship problems
• Employment difficulties
• Family conflicts 

When to Seek Treatment for Suicidal Thoughts

Suicidal ideation doesn’t always result in a person acting on those ideas. But if you have any suicidal thoughts, it’s crucial to seek help as soon as possible.

Signs and symptoms of suicidal ideation aren’t always obvious and vary between people. Below are some common warning signs of suicidal thoughts.

Indicators of suicidal ideation include:

• Feelings of despair or worthlessness
• Social withdrawal
• Lack of personal care (appearance and hygiene)
• Lost interest in hobbies and activities 
• Insomnia or sleeping too much
• Changes in diet
• Lack of energy and motivation
• Mood swings and poor emotional regulation
• Increased irritability or agitation
• Dangerous or self-destructive behaviors
• Increased substance use
• Physical self-harm

More imminent suicide warning signs are:

• Threatening suicide 
• Often talking about death or dying
• Making a plan of how to die
• Accessing a way to end life
• Saying goodbyes
• Giving away valued possessions

Julie said, “If there is an imminent risk of harm to self, treatment needs to be initiated through mobile crisis services or the local emergency room.” 

Active ideation is a more immediate and urgent risk than passive ideation. But both types of suicidal thoughts can have major negative effects on your everyday life. Passive ideation can also turn into active ideation if left untreated. Julie said anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts should seek mental health care immediately.

Supporting a Loved One Who has Suicidal Thoughts

The first step in supporting a loved one who may be having suicidal thoughts is encouraging them to talk about their feelings. If you’re unsure of what your loved one is going through, it’s vital to ask them directly if they:

• Are having suicidal thoughts/ideas
• Have a suicide plan 
• Have access to lethal means

“You have to have the confidence that asking these direct questions will not increase the person’s suicidal thoughts,” Julie said. “It will give you information that indicates how strongly the person has thought about killing themselves.” 

Julie noted that if you think the person might harm themself, do not leave them alone. Instead, remove any potentially lethal items from the vicinity and seek professional help immediately.

If your loved one doesn’t have immediate plans of suicide, ​​it’s still crucial to offer support. You should find the right help as soon as possible.

Other ways to support a loved one with suicidal thoughts are:

• Educate yourself with these suicide prevention resources
• Recognize warning signs of the worsening condition
• Know the risk factors for suicide
• Be aware of any self-harm clues
• Be there for them
• Help create a low-stress environment
• Encourage them to talk to you about their feelings
• Let them know that support is available
• Help them find treatment

Maintaining an approach rooted in care and compassion is of critical importance when supporting a loved one experiencing thoughts of suicide, Julie said. 

When talking with your loved one about suicide, be patient, listen compassionately, and try to empathize with them. Let them know that you care and you are there to support them no matter what. Don’t victim-blame, judge, or make negative or unhelpful comments that might make them feel worse. Respect and reassurance are key.

Treatments to Help Reduce Suicidal Thoughts

Suicidal ideation usually won’t go away on its own. But with professional help, it is treatable, and you can go back to living a happy and fulfilled life.

The first step in treatment for suicidal thoughts is assessing for underlying mental health disorders. Mood disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety, are strongly linked to suicidal ideation — especially if left untreated. Depression treatment and suicide treatment work best when combined into one customized holistic care plan.

The proper treatment plan for suicidal thoughts also depends on whether the ideation is passive or active. High-risk active suicide ideation may require a stay at an inpatient facility. You can be cared for and watched at this facility until you’re well again. You can usually treat lower-risk, passive suicidal ideation with outpatient therapies and support groups.

Therapies for suicidal thoughts include:

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). A psychotherapy that teaches you skills and strategies to help regulate your emotions, tolerate distress, and be more mindful.
• Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT). Increases awareness of unhealthy emotional reactions and helps you develop healthier responses by changing your overall process of thinking. Expands on regular CBT by adding elements of mindfulness.
• Trauma-Informed Therapy. Helps you acknowledge and overcome traumatic experiences that may contribute to mental health issues and suicidal thoughts.
• Attachment-Based Family Therapy. An emotion-based therapy used to rebuild secure relationships between family members. Common in adolescents.
• Experiential Therapies. Art, music, and equine therapies, along with other experiential treatments, can work in conjunction with the above modalities to help treat suicidal thoughts.

Compassionate engagement in suicide treatment is critical, according to Julie. 

“Once engaged, it is imperative that trust is fostered so that the therapeutic relationship can be experienced by the individual as valued, supported, seen, and heard,” she said. “This foundation will allow the individual to engage in interventions that increase protective factors and reduce risk factors.” 

Suicide Treatment at ILC

If you or a loved one are having thoughts of suicide, Integrative Life Center’s suicide treatment program can help.

At ILC, we start with a medical assessment that helps determine what type of interventions might best serve you. We believe there is no one-size-fits-all treatment for suicidal thoughts. Every person and situation is different.

Our professional counselors and therapists create specifically-tailored treatment plans to treat suicidal ideation and co-occurring disorders. We can help you regain control of your thoughts and life once again through our heart-centered approach experienced through a  combination of integrative and holistic therapies.

Contact Integrative Life Center today to start discussing your options.

The post When to Seek Treatment for Suicidal Thoughts appeared first on Integrative Life Center.

source https://integrativelifecenter.com/when-to-seek-treatment-for-suicidal-thoughts/

Can You Heal From Grief?

Loss is inevitable, but that doesn’t make the grief easier to cope with. No matter who you are or where you come from, everyone experiences loss, which feels life-altering. But can you heal from grief? The road to recovery is different for everyone, but seeking grief and loss treatment may be helpful to healing.

Sheena Miller, Clinical Manager at Integrative Life Center, said it’s important to know that any loss can have a lasting effect on anyone. She said:

“When a loved one passes, it has a permanent impact on the lives of those who are left behind. Everything from holidays, family reunions, birthdays, and vacations will forever be a reminder of the loss. While there is a certain level of normalcy that we can return to in our day-to-day activities, we are forever changed by the loss. However, grief can move to a celebration of life. We can learn to find joy in the remembrance of that person^[a].”

Stages of Grief

Everyone experiences grief differently, but it’s common to go through five stages. Recognizing these stages can help you guide the grieving process and better understand your grief.

The 5 stages of grief are:

1. Denial. During this stage, people usually feel numb and try to pretend like nothing happened — like they didn’t suffer a loss.
2. Anger. Feeling angry about the unfairness of the situation or even toward the person who died is typical in this stage.
3. Bargaining. This stage is when a person starts trying to make deals with themselves, a higher power, or even the person who died in an effort to just feel better.
4. Depression. The sadness of the loss sets in during this phase. The person begins to try to accept what happened and determine how they can move on with their life.
5. Acceptance. With time the person learns to cope with the loss and continue with their lives.

Some people work through the process over  time, while others seem to get “stuck” and can’t transition through the stages of grief, according to Sheena.

“Sometimes there is a feeling of guilt associated with the loss that can come from someone who feels as if they didn’t do enough when the person was alive. The first thing that must be addressed is the feelings of guilt. Then the person can begin to process the stages of grief,” she said.      

Ways to Process Grief and Heal From It

The stages of grief can feel isolating and endless. Be patient with yourself and allow space to heal.

Time is one of the best cures for the grief process, Sheena stated. How long it takes depends on the person and the type of loss, she said.

The emotional act of grieving “may take several months or even years for someone to fully digest the event, then process the feelings associated with what’s happened,” she said.

Ways to help process grief include:

• Connecting with others through groups focused on grief recovery
• Using distractions like spending time with friends or family
• Finding time to meditate to focus on self-compassion and working through your feelings

• Feeling the sense of loss
• Nourishing your body and mind with regular meals and snacks
• Avoiding substance use, including alcohol
• Acknowledging your feelings
• Trying to maintain a routine lifestyle
• Avoiding any major life changes
• Showing yourself grace and giving yourself room to grieve

For many, creating a meaningful memorial for a loved one can bring comfort and keep their memory alive. Funding a scholarship program or establishing a charity in your loved one’s name can help honor and celebrate their values and interests.

When to Seek Grief and Loss Treatment

Sheena shared that grief is a natural, necessary, functional human response when a person experiences a loss. But it may be time for a person to seek treatment for their grief when they start showing signs of depression, she said.

Signs of depression include:

• Lacking interest or pleasure in activities that previously brought you joy
• Feelings of excessive guilt unrelated to your loss
• Feelings of fatigue and loss of energy on a consistent basis
• Diminished ability to think or concentrate
• Difficulty making decisions
• Slowed speech or movements that are noticeable to others
• Changes in appetite and sleep disruptions
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation

Asking for help can be difficult. Talking to a grief counselor who can identify the symptoms of grief and guide the recovery process can provide comfort. By facilitating a safe, honest environment, grief counselors can help overcome the guilt, pain, and longing that often comes with grief. The change won’t happen overnight, but it can be a lifeline to cope with these intense feelings.

Just as the grieving process is unique to each person, so is treatment. A mental health professional can help determine the best type of grief and loss treatment for you. It can include a combination of individual and group therapies.

Grief can feel isolating. Group therapy or simply surrounding yourself with loved ones can be helpful in healing. Being honest about your feelings can help others feel less alone and build trust and understanding. Sometimes, finding solace in your community is the best way to heal. Build a foundation of friends, family, counselors, or support groups who will comfort you at your lows and celebrate you at your highs.

Let ILC Help You Heal From Grief

Healing from grief isn’t linear. You may find comfort in understanding the stages of grief or looking to others for help, but you’re not bound to a rule book of healing. Allow yourself grace to process your grief and find acceptance in your own time. And remember, it’s acceptable to seek the professional help you may need to heal.

Integrative Life Center is a safe place for healing and recovery. Don’t suffer in silence. Our team is passionate about helping those grieving find peace and comfort. Contact us today to find out how we can help with your grief and loss treatment.

The post Can You Heal From Grief? appeared first on Integrative Life Center.

source https://integrativelifecenter.com/can-you-heal-from-grief/

What Are Best Practices for Trauma Treatment?

After experiencing a traumatic event, like a car wreck or a divorce, you may consider visiting a mental health professional for the first time. Quite often, you can feel at a loss about how to begin the process of healing from trauma. You may even wonder what steps you can take to heal, and what trauma treatment options are out there. 

Understanding Trauma

Trauma is a severe stressor or series of stressful happenings that can cause an extreme emotional response. You can experience trauma from anything you find physically or emotionally harmful, such as: 

• Accidents
• Assaults or attacks 
• Injuries
• Physical, emotional, sexual, or psychological abuse, including instances from your childhood
• Neglect 
• Grief
• Bullying
• Racism

Everyone experiences trauma in their lifetimes, but your response to trauma doesn’t have to be the result of something that happened to you. You can experience emotional trauma as a result of something you experience personally or witness through another person. 

Everyone responds differently to trauma. In fact, two people may respond differently to the same traumatic experience. That’s why it’s vital not to discredit your reactions to trauma. Don’t minimize your experience or emotions by comparing your experience with others. Review the symptoms of trauma and be honest with yourself. If you’re experiencing any of the following, you should consider seeking trauma treatment.

Symptoms of Trauma 

How do you know if you have trauma symptoms and need help? Here are some symptoms to watch for:

• Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, strained relationships, and thoughts of suicide

• Triggers related to the experience, such as hearing the same song you heard during a car accident, can cause you to experience stress, threatening feelings, and difficulty relaxing and feeling safe

• Adverse coping attempts, including self harm, alcohol and drug use, bullying, isolating, or difficulty being present
• Trauma-related behaviors, including severe anxiety, flashbacks of the traumatic experience, and avoidance like never revisiting the place where the experience happened

Trauma is unlikely to heal on its own. Instead, trauma that’s left untreated will continue to hinder, stunt, and negatively impact your emotional, social, and physical health. If you recognize any of these behaviors in yourself, it’s important to seek trauma-informed treatment. 

Benefits of Trauma-Informed Therapy

Treatment helps you manage your symptoms, improve your quality of life, and change your thought patterns surrounding the traumatic experience. Your brain is remarkable and capable of healing. By working with a specialized trauma therapist, you’ll be able to:

• Reduce the symptoms of trauma
• Work through past traumas and shift your focus to the present moment
• Identify triggers and learn how to cope with them
• Improve your daily functioning, including regulating your nervous system
• Reclaim your feelings of control, safety, and self agency
• Rebuild relationships
• Overcome addictions resulting from unresolved trauma
• Improve physical and mental health
• Develop healthy coping skills that serve you for the rest of your life

You can live a better life, even after facing trauma, by seeking therapy. It’s critical to find a therapist who specializes in the field of trauma, so you’re in the best hands possible. Look for treatment centers that focus on the core principles of trauma-informed treatment.

Core Principles of Trauma-Informed Treatment

Trauma-informed treatment is a way to approach counseling with the client’s past traumatic experiences in mind. This framing enables mental health care providers to approach clients with empathy. It also promotes an environment of safety, empowerment, and healing. Trauma-informed treatment also has other core principles.

Holistic

“Trauma impacts us as a whole — our minds, bodies, behavior, self identity, spirits, relationships, and communities,” stated Carmen Dominguez, Clinical Director at Integrative Life Center. “Best practices must treat trauma in a holistic manner.” 

When you’re looking for the right therapist, focus on finding trauma treatment that supports the ideology of holistic treatment. That means they should ask about your trauma history, rather than just focus on one event or your symptoms. Your therapist should also understand the widespread impact of trauma, and seek to understand all the ways it impacts you.

Comprehensive

Although understanding your history of trauma is vital, it’s also important for your therapist to get to the root cause of your current symptoms or adverse behaviors. Your therapist should be able to recognize what events are traumatic, as well as the symptoms of emotional trauma. They need to find the root of your traumatic stressors, and understand how to address them.

Carmen said the relationship between the trauma survivor and their counselor is critical.

“We know that trauma happens in relationships. To heal trauma, clients need to experience therapeutic relationships that make room for authenticity, mutuality, and that foster trauma-informed consideration such as transparency, collaboration, cultural humility, voice choice, and self agency,” she said.

Your therapist should also be time-sensitive when addressing trauma. The longer trauma goes unaddressed, the longer you’ll be living with negative symptoms and a reduced quality of life. Look for a therapist who understands that acting as soon as possible is necessary. 

Empowering

When it comes to appropriate therapeutic interventions for trauma treatment, it’s important that you have a choice. You have free will, opinions, and preferences. The right therapist for you will invite you to join them in the decision-making process. This collaborative spirit helps you gain a sense of empowerment.

“We don’t want to assume that there is one way to heal trauma,”  Carmen said. “There are many paths to healing.” Look for trauma treatment that includes you in the decision-making process rather than deciding for you.

Therapeutic options for treating trauma include:

• Psychotherapy. By talking to a professional, you can explore your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. You’ll begin to understand why your mind and body respond to trauma the way they do and explore these responses in a safe, observant way.

• Equine-Assisted Therapy. This approach includes activities and interactions with horses to treat mental health conditions, relieve stress, improve confidence, and build relationship skills.

• Experiential Therapy. Used alongside talk therapy, experiential therapies like yoga, music, art, and play help you learn to express yourself in real-world situations.

• Support Groups. Talking with others who have had similar experiences as you can be invaluable. It also helps you feel connected and build relationships.

When you’re looking for a therapist, make sure they give you time to explore your options, and include you in the process of deciding what’s best for you. After all, you need to be comfortable with your healing process.

“We want to guide clients back to their inherent worth, to the intrinsic wisdom that is within them,” Carmen said.

Treatment at Integrative Life Center

At Integrative Life Center, we offer ongoing mental health support that includes you in the decision-making processes. We operate from a trauma-informed perspective, with therapists who are trained and knowledgeable in the trauma space. We’re heart-centered, providing a loving approach to emotional and spiritual healing.

If you or a loved one are experiencing mental health concerns, contact Integrative Life Center to learn more about our treatment options.

The post What Are Best Practices for Trauma Treatment? appeared first on Integrative Life Center.

source https://integrativelifecenter.com/what-are-best-practices-for-trauma-treatment/

Is There Treatment for Social Anxiety?

You’re walking up to a party. There’s music, laughter, and dancing. Conversations are loud and animated. You see some people you don’t recognize. Do you walk in, find a friend, and start introducing yourself to the new faces? Or does the thought of talking to people keep you from even going in or send you scrambling to find the nearest corner that’s utterly devoid of humans?

If the thought of mingling with a crowd makes your skin crawl, you may experience Social Anxiety Disorder. But there are treatment options for anxiety, including social anxiety. 

Understanding Social Anxiety Disorder

Social Anxiety Disorder causes excessive worry, stress, and anxiety around the thought of being judged or becoming embarrassed within social settings, so much so that it interferes with a person’s daily life. 

The critical component of SAD is that a person has a nearly insurmountable concern about being seen in a negative light by others. This concern could look like being afraid of embarrassing themselves or having a sense of dread about coming off as boring or stupid. But the fear is so extreme that they would rather avoid social events or places where there will be many people or unfamiliar people.

SAD is not a label to give to children or adults who are simply more shy or introverted. Rather, it is a persistent and distressing mental health concern that is a mental health professional diagnosis.

How Prevalent is SAD?

SAD affects 15 million adults, or about 7.1% of the U.S. population, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. This mental health concern is also found to be equally common among women and men in the U.S., according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). Additionally, the ADAA reports that 36% of people experiencing SAD symptoms wait 10 or more years before seeking treatment.

Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder

Once someone is diagnosed with SAD, what are their treatment options? Much like all mental health concerns, there’s a wide array of treatments for anxiety. 

The most popular SAD treatments are:

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. CBT looks at a person’s thoughts and behaviors and the connection between them. A counselor can help a person identify their unhelpful thoughts and work to reveal how these thoughts lead to specific actions or behaviors. Once identified, the person can work to change their thoughts so their behavior also changes.
• Exposure Therapy. Exposure Therapy involves slowly exposing the person to their fear using gradual steps while practicing relaxation, grounding, and mindfulness techniques to lessen the severity of anxiety symptoms. As a person with SAD slowly exposes themselves to situations that cause them anxiety, the idea is that the feared situation won’t have so much power over them.
• Group Therapy. Group Therapy for people experiencing SAD may involve support groups with others managing the same condition, either in-person or online. The group gives the person supportive peers who know what they’re going through and allows them to practice social skills and engage in safe social situations.

Which Treatment for Anxiety is the Best?

Melisse Prusinkski, Clinical Manager of Morningstar Women’s Program at Integrative Life Center, said a mix of individual and group therapy is the best option for treating social anxiety. 

“Social anxiety can be triggered in a safe environment. With support, you can figure out how to heal the underlying reasons that the social anxiety became pervasive,” she said. “You will feel the connection of the group.”

She said treatment for social anxiety is the scariest thing a person can do because treatment triggers the anxiety to help conquer it.

“Unfortunately for those with social anxiety, healing can’t happen in isolation. That’s why individual therapy alone probably won’t work,” she said. “Most maladaptive behaviors take over when a person was alone.”

Integrative Life Center offers a combination of individual and group therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder and holistic and non-traditional healing practices such as yoga, acupuncture, and equestrian therapy.

Helpful Practices for Social Anxiety

Melisse said people with Social Anxiety Disorder help themselves by learning their triggers and where they originated.

“Many times there was an early trauma where rejection or abandonment was perceived,” she said. 

Once they determine where the trigger originated, people can use things like daily mantras, intentionally connecting with others, finding groups for social activities like sports, meditation, or volunteering, Melisse suggested.

“When a person goes to a social event they can share their feelings with a supportive person,” she said.

Other tips for people dealing with anxiety include:

• Learn about social anxiety
• Limit or lessen caffeine and alcohol intake
• Eat a balanced diet
• Exercise regularly
• Drink more water
• Practice breathing and relaxation techniques
• Rely on your support system
• Seek help from a mental health professional

How Can ILC Help

Integrative Life Center offers unique and individualized treatment plans for each person ready to start their healing journey. If you or someone you know is dealing with Social Anxiety Disorder and wants more information or resources, reach out to ILC today.

The post Is There Treatment for Social Anxiety? appeared first on Integrative Life Center.

source https://integrativelifecenter.com/is-there-treatment-for-social-anxiety/